Automobile body panels and frame members are assembled together by various assembly methods. For instance, conventional sheet metal body members are welded together by spot welds or fastened together by mechanical means. In recent years, polymeric based composite vehicle body members are widely used. Adhesives have been found useful in the assembly of plastic body members. Such applications include the bonding of a body panel to a frame member, i.e. the bonding of an appearance panel to a support structure such as in the application of a vehicle hood, or a variety of other body components. However, most of the adhesive bonded parts are used in non-structural applications.
To qualify as a bonding method for automobile body components, various performance requirements must be met by the adhesive bonded assembly. Such requirements include, for instance, an exposure test of automobile service environment for low temperature/high temperature, salt spray, vibrations, weatherability, etc. In the case of a structural component, the additional requirements for the component to carry a dynamic: load and to survive various stress and fatigue conditions must also be met. Due to the difficulty of meeting all these requirements, the adhesive bonding technique has not been widely used in the assembly of automobile structural components.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide structural components of a vehicle bonded by adhesives that does not have the shortcomings of the prior art methods.
It is another object of the present invention to provide vehicle structural components bonded by adhesives where the components can be assembled together in a dry state without contamination by squeezed-out adhesives.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide vehicle structural components adhesively bonded together in such a way that the vehicle components may be disassembled before the application of the adhesive.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide vehicle structural components which can be adhesively bonded together which can be carried out efficiently in, an automobile assembly line environment.